


spring is coming, but not just yet

by ODed_on_jingle_jangle



Series: for you, above all [3]
Category: Dare Me (TV 2019), Dare Me - Megan Abbott
Genre: Christmas, Established Relationship, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Romantic Fluff, Teen Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-20
Updated: 2020-03-20
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:14:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23226139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ODed_on_jingle_jangle/pseuds/ODed_on_jingle_jangle
Summary: “Merry Christmas, Ad~el~aide!” Beth singsongs, certainly purposely obnoxiously cheerful.Addy bats the red thing off of her cheek and rolls onto her stomach, burying her face back into her pillow.“Not right now,” she groans. “Lemme sleep in.”“Nope!” Beth lightly spanks her hand against Addy’s bottom. “Christmas only comes once a year! Time to make merry, bitch, ho ho ho!”
Relationships: Beth Cassidy/Addy Hanlon
Series: for you, above all [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1667389
Comments: 10
Kudos: 129





	spring is coming, but not just yet

**Author's Note:**

> Anonymous sent: _I have an Addy/Beth prompt if you feel up to it :) ... Addy and Beth’s first Christmas together._
> 
> Here it is. Title is from A Softer World comic 1083.

Addy wakes up to something soft and solid smacking against her cheek. She wearily opens her eyelids and slides them to the red blur as it lifts up and then down to her cheek again, another soft smack. 

“Merry Christmas, Ad~el~aide!” Beth singsongs, certainly purposely obnoxiously cheerful. 

Addy bats the red thing off of her cheek and rolls onto her stomach, burying her face back into her pillow. 

“Not right now,” she groans. “Lemme sleep in.” 

“Nope!” Beth lightly spanks her hand against Addy’s bottom. “Christmas only comes once a year! Time to make merry, bitch, ho ho ho!” 

“Fine,” Addy sighs in defeat, propping herself up onto her elbows and looking up to her girlfriend. 

Beth grins down at her, dressed in a pine green sweater dress and thick, cranberry leggings with tiny silver studs running up and down the sides. 

“What’re you doing here so early?” 

“Your mom let me in on her way out. And it’s not early, Addy, it’s after noon.” 

“Really?” Addy blinks again and rolls over, sitting on her still slightly sore butt. She’s been sleeping in later since school let out for winter break, but she’s usually up before eleven. “Oh.” 

She supposes it’s because she had a late night. She and her mother celebrated the holiday the night before since Faith knew she had a shift today. They didn’t do anything super fancy, but they went out to dinner, exchanged gifts, went through a couple bowls of kettle corn watching cheesy Christmas movies that proved better at making them laugh than tugging at their heartstrings. It was pretty nice. 

“Wipe the pouty look off your face, Sleeping Beauty, I brought your Christmas presents.” Beth nods behind Addy. 

Addy glances over to see a stuffed Christmas stocking on her bedspread, bright red and velvet. The thing Beth had smacked her in the face with. Irresistibly, she smirks up at Beth and pulls the stocking into her lap. 

Addy takes what’s inside out, these bundles wrapped in glittery tissue paper. The first two bundles are rolls of athletic tape, in bright lime green and atomic tangerine. Her favorite colors. She flashes a smile up to Beth and then unwraps the next bundle. A small pack of ankle socks, plain white cotton. 

“Oh good, I need these. Mine are wearing out.” 

“I noticed. Your toes kept poking out of the holes when we were cuddling the other night.” 

A wave of fondness floats up in Addy’s chest. She opens the last bundle, a keychain with a plush, purple devil emoji on the end. 

“The devil emoji?” she asks, raising a brow. 

“Uh, yeah,” Beth scoffs. “It’s very you.” 

Addy crinkles her nose. “No way. I’m more like the laughing cat emoji.” 

“Oh, please,” Beth dismissively flaps her hand, infernal smirk on her lips. “RiRi’s the laughing cat. You’ve the devil emoji, all the way.” 

“If I’m the devil emoji, then you’re the poop emoji,” Addy huffs, feigning offense. 

“Cause I’m hot shit?” Beth exaggeratedly tosses her hair over her shoulder and rests a hand on her hip. 

Addy rolls her eyes and gently pushes her gifts off her lap, onto her bed. 

“Okay. Time for yours.” She gets up and goes into her closet, pulling out a package wrapped in festive paper featuring skiing penguins. 

“Gimme.” Beth takes it from her hands and does an excited little twirl, plopping onto the edge of Addy’s bed. 

Addy pushes her own gifts further back and sits next to her as she unwraps the box. Some people unwrap gifts neatly, taking them right where they’re taped and unfolding them crease by crease. Beth just shreds it off, rapidly revealing what’s beneath. In this case, it’s a Himalayan salt lamp. 

“Ooh,” Beth trills with interest, holding it upright. 

“I thought it’d look cool in your room and they’re supposed to be good for you. Like, supposedly they clean the air, boost your mood, help you sleep…I know you’ve been having trouble sleeping for awhile.” 

Some of the lightness leaves Beth’s face, her features subdued as she looks back to Addy. 

“I love it,” she murmurs, soft and sincere. “Thank you.” 

She presses a warm kiss to the corner of Addy’s mouth and butterflies flutter through her stomach. 

“I love mine too. Even the stupid devil emoji.” Addy swats at Beth’s knee. 

Beth playfully swats back and sets the salt lamp on Addy’s nightstand. 

“So,” she begins. “Your mom has to work. Mine was two mugs away from an eggnog coma so she’s gotta be there by now. Bert took the the fetus to some overrated tree lightning ceremony out of town. Which means…” 

“It’s just you and me,” Addy finishes.

“Just you and me,” Beth agrees. “What do you want to do?” 

Addy thinks of the things they used to do on winter break together. Snowball fights. Tag-teaming and terrorizing Tacy in particular, slamming her with snowballs until she’d be soaked to the skin. Building gingerbread houses and baking gingerbread men to go with them. Beth would always bite off their heads. One time, after biting the heads off every cookie in the batch, Beth even decorated the gingerbread gouges her teeth left with blood red frosting gel. 

Addy had found it hilarious. But Tacy isn’t here to throw snowballs at and gingerbread’s been out of the picture since cheerleading entered it. It’s time for something different. 

“Do you want to go down to the river?” Addy asks. “It’s totally frozen now.” 

“Sure, why not?” 

* * *

They take Addy’s car to the campground bordering the river, a place completely deserted in the winter. You’re not really supposed to walk on the ice, frozen solid or not, but it’s not as if either them have ever cared to follow the rules. They trudge down the snowy hill and onto the ice. 

Addy sucks in a deep breath of the crisp winter air and Beth’s gloved hand finds hers. Their fingers intertwine and they begin to walk, hands idly swinging as the snowflakes drift down from above. Beth smiles softly at her from underneath her thick knit beanie and when she’s smiling like that, lips gently curved up and just a hint of something impish, there’s no way Addy can feel anything but warm. No matter how cold it is out here. 

“What made you pick the river?”

“I don’t know.” Addy gives a little shrug. 

“Mm, you don’t?” Beth hums lightly. 

“I guess I think it’s cool to look at it like this,” Addy says as she gazes out as far as she can. “This is the only time of year we can do this and get this kind of perspective.” 

Gauzy gray clouds drift above, emptying the snow upon them, winter sky so surreally pale. At some point in the far distance, the sky seems to touch the plane of the ice they walk on. 

“I wonder where we’d end up if we just kept following it and never stopped.” 

“Could always look it up online.” Beth pops her lips. 

“That’s not any fun.” Addy rolls her eyes. “I think it’d be cool to discover it with you. If we just kept going and going, and wound up on some kind of adventure together.” 

“Ooh, Christmas adventure,” Beth coos sarcastically. “Are we gonna find Santa Claus? Hitch a ride on his sleigh?” 

“Pssh. Shut up.” Addy reproachfully tugs on her hand. 

“Okay, okay.” Beth relents, voice softening. “I do see what you mean. That feeling out here that we could go anywhere, just the two of us. It’s nice, Addy.” 

The snow keeps on falling, glistening and powdery beneath their winter boots. At some point they stop to make a small snowman. They don’t have a spare scarf or hat, but there’s sticks and rocks nearby, and those are good enough in a pinch. 

Addy makes the base and Beth makes the head. There’s no middle to him, not enough good packing snow for that. Their snowman is a short fellow, only just as tall as Addy’s knee. They use a discarded cola bottle cap for his nose in place of a carrot. A handful of pebbles makes up his goofy smile. 

Beth jabs a small stick into the base and packs snow overtop of it, snorting gleefully as she announces, 

“Look, I gave him a boner!” 

Addy loses it, going into a giggling fit. It’s so stupid, really they’re not in middle school anymore, boners aren’t funny anymore. Except they actually are still, kind of, and this tiny, somewhat lopsided snowman with his snow-boner is especially so. Looking at Addy with his pathetic, lumpy rock eyes, this snowy stick protruding out.

Beth’s eyes sparkle with mirth and there’s snowflakes in her lashes, in her hair, glittering beautifully. Beth’s laugher leaps from her tongue in lovely, belly deep bursts and Addy doesn’t think she’s ever been more in love. Her heart’s so full, she couldn’t possibly be. 

She claps her now snow-encrusted gloves to the sides of Beth’s blushing cheeks, making her shriek. 

“Cold! That’s cold, Addy— mmph!” 

Addy covers Beth’s mouth with hers, heart so freaking full, it’s crazy. Beth kisses her back and it’s a damn good kiss, all hot, firecracker passion. But immediately after, she steals Addy’s hat and springs to her feet. 

“Hey!” 

“That’s what you get, Hanlon!” Beth takes off running, arm stretched high above her head with Addy’s wool cap clutched in her triumphant fist. 

Addy charges after her, wind whipping her face, blowing hot water back from her eyes. Luckily the layers of snow keep the ice from being too slippery. Beth whirls back toward her and does a zigzag to avoid Addy’s lunge. Her fingertips skim the fabric and then Beth jerks it away. 

“You must not want it that bad,” she taunts. 

Addy hooks her arm around Beth’s waist, stopping her in her tracks. 

“I’ll take that now,” she says smugly. 

“Alright, you got me.” Beth gives in and pulls the hat back over Addy’s ears. 

For a moment it throws both of them, when they hear the music. They exchange puzzled looks, glancing around. 

“Must be up there,” Addy realizes, pointing. Up the hill, there’s some kind of building. It’s too far away for her to recognize what place it is specifically. 

Whatever it is, they’re playing Christmas music. Like the building, it’s too far away to identify the specific song, but it’s still nice. Addy can tell it’s Christmas music just by the way it sounds. It tinkles softly through the air around her and Beth like melodic whispers. 

“Shall we dance?” Beth asks breathlessly, opening her arms.

“Yes,” she says because it’s all she can say when her heart is this freaking full and Beth is gazing at her through eyes forested by flakes like tiny crystals. 

Addy puts her hands on Beth’s waist. Beth’s hands curl behind her neck like that’s where they were always meant to be. They sway together side to side in the middle of the frozen river, humming the tunes to Christmas ballads too far away to recognize. 

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you like it, dude. Will fix typos in the morning.


End file.
